ITPGRFA Seeks Close Collaboration with CBD on Benefit-sharing | News | SDG Knowledge Hub – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

The Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) highlighted the need to ensure close collaboration with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), particularly in the context of the negotiations to enhance the functioning of the Treaty’s Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) and ongoing talks under the CBD towards a multilateral mechanism on benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources.

ITPGRFA aims to conserve crop diversity and share its benefits for human and planetary well-being.

The theme of the tenth session of its Governing Body (GB 10) was ‘From Seeds to Innovative Solutions, Safeguarding Our Future: Contributing to the Implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework for Sustainable Food Systems,’ which highlighted the importance of crop diversity for food security, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic well-being in the face of global challenges. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the meeting notes that convening less than a year after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the meeting “underscored farmers’ contributions to agricultural biodiversity, and drew attention to the interlinkages between the Treaty and [CBD].”

“Four Working Group meetings are planned for the next biennium,” ENB highlights, “to allow for progress on the negotiations…